Register-based research on suicide and deliberate self-harm

The research group aims to address suicide and deliberate self-harm with data from Norwegian registers. Such large scale population studies could provide rich insights to inform national strategies for effective treatment and prevention.

About the group

Suicide and deliberate self-harm are important public health problems in Norway and many other countries.

In order to reduce the number of such tragedies, large scale population studies are essential to gain valuable insights to inform strategies for effective treatment and prevention.

Norway is in a fortunate position for large scale studies because of well-functioning registration systems. The richness of personal data prospectively and retrospectively recorded in various national registers enables us to retrieve individual level data on a great variety of variables for suicide research.

This newly established research group aims to utilize data from various Norwegian registers for a series of population studies on suicide and deliberate self-harm.

Our primary purposes are to document the magnitude of the problems, to monitor their development, to unravel associated factors and to search for evidence both clinically and practically meaningful for prevention and intervention.

Research priorities in recent years have been a number of fundamentally important issues on this topic with clear research plans for many years beyond.

Projects

Specifically, our research topics include:

Validation of data on suicide and deliberate self-harm recorded in Norwegian health registers.

Investigation of the contextual influences of socioeconomic factors, physical and mental health status on suicide and deliberate self-harm.

Follow-up evaluation of progress and risk of repeated suicidal behaviors in people who are treated for deliberate self-harm.

Suicide and deliberate self-harm in the immigrant population in Norway.

Suicide and deliberate self-harm in relation to socioeconomic inequality.

Suicidal behaviour and psychosocial well-being associated with bereavement and stressful life events

By linking data from several national registries, our studies will be among the largest and most comprehensive studies on suicidal behavior worldwide.

Results and insights obtained from the proposed research activities will greatly contribute to a better understanding of suicide and deliberate self-harm in Norway, and lay a solid foundation for further research in this field.

The findings will also contribute significantly to the planning of health services and the strategies of suicide prevention.